Please don't smoke...

Rogue Keeper on 20/7/2006 at 09:18

Oh well... while smokers are being demonized around, the northern hemispere is suffering from heats fed by much worse shit than just cigarette smoke.
I just love this world! :)

Quote:

Are you wondering why it's so hot today?

Is it just a freak summer? Or proof of global warming? As temperatures hit record highs, what's fuelling the heatwave?
(http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1185354.ece)
Published: 19 July 2006

Cars

Soaring emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), an inevitable waste product of burning coal, oil and gas, are causing the atmosphere to retain more of the sun's heat and change the climate, with potentially catastrophic results. Britain's road transport emissions grew by 8 per cent between 1990 and 2000 and without any further policy measures to combat this, scientists predict emissions in 2010 will be 15.6 per cent higher than in 1990. This means cars and lorries in five years' time will be pumping out 46.5 million tons of carbon a year compared with 40.2 million tons in 1990.

Electricity generation

Power generation accounts for the biggest single source of carbon dioxide and equivalent greenhouse gases, with 61 million tons being released into the atmosphere in Britain in 2004. This was about 40 per cent of our total greenhouse gas emissions. A switch from power generation using coal and oil to gas, nuclear energy and renewables has led to a fall in annual emissions since 1990. However, growing energy demands - and the closure of many nuclear power plants over the next decade - makes it by no means certain that this decline will continue.

Aviation

Carbon emissions from jet aircraft represent one of the fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gases. Scientists forecast that by 2030 the amount of CO2 or equivalent greenhouse gases released by UK aviation could produce 16 to 18 million tons of carbon annually; it is also thought that the effect on the climate of releasing greenhouse gases at high altitude could be between two and four times greater than releasing CO2 at ground level. Cheap air travel does not take into account the cost to the environment.

PigLick on 20/7/2006 at 10:52

I'm sick of this global warming shit, I mean scientists and envorimental experts have been warning about this stuff since the 70's. Oh my god this is heat is unseasonal, its so hot, it must be global warming. Just sit back and enjoy the ride.

SubJeff on 20/7/2006 at 11:20

Amen to that.

And I wish the UK newspapers (and people) would STFU about the heat. We have world reknowned bad weather (am I rite people? 'tis fair to be sure) and yet when we get temps above 25 C it's all "Heat wave warning!" and the weatherman saying it's going to be "Muggy, sweaty, stiffling, sticky". SHUT UP. WHAT YOU MEAN IS IT'S GOING TO BE NICE AND SUNNY.

Myoldnamebroke on 20/7/2006 at 12:44

Did you post that here because GBM wouldn't let you in the 'wow it's hot' topic and you just couldn't control the urge?

Rogue Keeper on 20/7/2006 at 12:51

HOW U HAVE GUESSED IT :weird:

I'm going to enjoy a cig :cool:

Convict on 20/7/2006 at 13:06

RBJ and Stitch personal attacks are not a substitute for scientific debate. A meta-analysis is not on the same level as one individual study - this is top level evidence and therefore you cannot dismiss it by saying one study says this and another study says that. I did qualify it by stating myself that it would assume, perhaps not rightly, that 1 cigarette per day is equivalent to inhaling 2nd hand smoke at a bar. Additionally expert opinion (if that's what you are calling for) is the lowest level of evidence.

I am not hating the smoker, I have said my problems with it are that other people are damaged by the habit and I resent the large tax burden unfairly created to support this habit.

BR it's all very well to speak about the damage of environmental pollutants but what can we realistically do about it? People need lots of power, people need transport, people demand more and more goods and services with increasing real wealth and a more materialistic society.

hopper on 20/7/2006 at 13:35

My internet collection of scientific evidence has a bigger dick than your internet collection of scientific evidence.

SubJeff on 20/7/2006 at 13:38

But these "attacks" (more observations imho) are not a replacement for scientific debate - they are amusing and necessary adjuncts to the thread. That they are pointing out flaws in your logic is an added bonus.

Aerothorn on 21/7/2006 at 04:20

I was going to say this earlier, but by the time I read it I was several pages behind...but now that it's back, I'll address it.

In regards to the "people should be stopped from smoking because it places a burden on the medical system that inevitably is funded by tax dollars from my pocket" arguement:

That's great. That's right. But if there ever was a slippery slope arguement, that's it right there. If you're saying that we can't let people smoke because it's bad for them, then there's a lot of other behaivor we have to legislate, too. People eating fast food is bad for them; therefore, people should not be allowed to eat fast food. And baseball must be banned, cause pitching is REALLY bad for the pitchers, and you can't have baseball without pitchers. And white-water rafting is risky, gotta ban that too. You see where this is going? There's no end. Why target ciggerettes in exclusion to all other forms of harmful/risky behaivor?

Ko0K on 21/7/2006 at 04:59

However, unlike all those other things you listed, second-hand smoke is not voluntary. As for me, I just smoke outside where nobody else is around. It's easy for me, and nobody seems to have an issue with it, to be honest.